This invention relates to dental treatment control units for programming and regulating the supply of air and water to selected dental instruments.
Dental treatment control units of the prior art include complicated and expensive control systems for supplying air, water and vacuum to dental treatment instruments. A large number of control and regulating valves are required. In a typical unit operated by a standard pneumatic foot-controlled mechanism, the flow of air and/or water through flexible supply lines is regulated by the dentist operating valves and/or regulators in the foot-controlled mechanism. In order to vary the flow of fluid through the supply lines, regulator valves such as needle valves and air pilot valves are required in the supply lines. Such a system is complicated and expensive, and requires continuous monitoring.
Moreover, control units of the prior art include complicated mechanical, pneumatic or electrical mechanisms for programming the supply of air and/or water to selected dental treatment instruments. Such units are not able to both program and vary the amount of air and water supply in one simple operation.